Reliability modeling of a single phase liquid cooling system for power electronics applications

This paper provides an overview of the fundamental wear out mechanisms that can cause a reduction in performance in a single phase liquid cooling system. This system utilizes a plastic insert cold plate design to provide even cooling over the backside of a device by directing liquid coolant through parallel serpentine channels. The channel design increases the efficiency of convective heat transfer from a device, but its small feature sizes are subject to fouling, clogging, or erosion. Computational fluid dynamics software will be used to evaluate the thermal performance of the cooling system under ideal conditions as well as various wear out conditions.